Lyneham was chosen as the base for the new military technical training centre because it offered the best value for money, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has revealed.

Fears Lyneham could become a ghost village when the RAF leaves in December were allayed last year when the Ministry of Defence revealed its plans for the training centre.

In a special visit to the Adver offices yesterday, Mr Hammond said the base was chosen over several other locations because it could be converted for the least money.

“There were a number of options looked at, including one if I remember rightly which was St Athan,” he said.

“A lot of these decisions are made on the basis of local facilities available, on the basis of the accommodation on the base and how best we can utilise what we have to get best value for money out of the estate there.

“And the decision was that Lyneham could be brought up to the accommodation level required at the lowest cost and this presented the best value for money location for the tri-services technical training programme.

“It’s about looking at what’s already on the base in terms of infrastructure and what you would provide new. And if you are looking at one base where you’ve got to put £20m in and one where you have to put £10m in, that’s the best option.”

At present, colleges and training centres across the country teach personnel from all three military services. The move will mean thousands of personnel from the services will be located at the base to learn all the technical skills they need, including vehicle maintenance, engineering and IT.

Up to 25,000 students a year could be housed at the defence technical training centre, which would be fully established by 2020, with 1,950 students and staff there by 2015, rising to 4,300 when training is fully established.

Mr Hammond said: “It [Lyneham] will change of course because the character of a training academy is different to the character of an active RAF base, but the important thing is it will continue to bring the employment into the town - the shops and the pubs that would have gone if the base had simply closed.”

Yesterday, Mr Hammond also visited members of The 3rd Battalion, the Yorkshire Regiment, based at Battlesbury Barracks in Warminster, six of whose soldiers were killed in Afghanistan by a Taliban bomb recently.

The Defence Secretary said he would write to the families to express his condolences, but the deaths would make no difference to the UK’s military strategy.

Commenting on the attitude of the regiment, he added: “It’s very, very heartening to see the confidence that they have and the lack of any wavering. They’re obviously very sad but they know they’ve got a job to do and they want to get on and do it.”